When your views on the world and your intellect are being challenged and you begin to feel uncomfortable because of a contradiction you've detected that is threatening your current model of the world or some aspect of it, pay attention. You are about to learn something.

Pessimism vs. Optimism

There can be no doubt that racial relations in this country have improved dramatically since the days of Jim Crow, yet there are many, such as those in the Black Lives Matter movement who argue things are actually worse. Never mind that they were not alive during those truly discriminatory days. The Black community seems to have divided itself into two camps, the pessimistic who believe everything they see is racial and the optimistic who can see their way to giving the benefit of the doubt. And, except for the few who have succeeded on pure talent such as actors and sports celebrities, it is the pessimists that find their way to success blocked by racism. And yet there are many successful Black people who have become very successful, either in wealth or just in how they live their life, who made it using and optimistic outlook and overcoming adversity.

This whole concept of success through optimism and failure through pessimism can be applied to the divide in the whole country today. Everything I see coming from the Left/Progressive/Democrat side of the isle is pessimism while just the opposite is coming from the Right/Conservative/Republican side. The Left sees graft and corruption behind every program and deceit behind every word. But the Right forges ahead relying on personal responsibility and innate ambition to allow people to reach their potential. Perhaps the Left is projecting their own graft and corruption onto the Right. People do tend to believe others are like themselves. The graft and corruption so blatantly apparent in the Obama Administration and the Clinton campaign/Foundation can easily be transferred to the Conservatives. After all, if we are doing it they obviously must be doing it. And, yet, no graft or corruption has been found in the Trump administration or campaign after a full year of obsessive looking for it. Every rock has been turned over and nothing substantial has been found. A business man who has global dealings must have been influenced by a country he does business with – surely. And if we haven’t found it after a year of looking, it must just be buried deeper. The pessimism has reached a point where if something is not found, something will be manufactured.

I am confident that in the long run optimism will win out over pessimism. This country was built on the idea that people have the individual ability to succeed. Yes, we succeeded as a nation working collectively, but it was done through individual effort working toward a common goal and ideology. We cannot sustain it through a pessimistic, multicultural/multi-ideology, equal outcome philosophy. America succeeded because we were a Melting Pot with common goals toward our future, not an insoluble collection of rocks. Pessimism keeps people from joining the Melting Pot of ideas while optimism welcomes ideas (better known as Free Speech). Optimism is the way to the betterment of mankind. Pessimism holds us back and makes slaves of us all.